AGAINST THE SHUT-DOWN INITIATIVES

Nobel Prize winner H.A. Bethe's article "The necessity of nuclear power" in the Jan. Scient. Amer. is now available for 30 cents as Offprint no.348 from W.H. Freeman & Co, 660 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94104.

What happened in the Browns Ferry fire? Nothing that endangered the public; and plenty to show how much room for human error there is in a nuclear plant. A Special Review Group appointed by the NRC has now reported on the fire in a detailed report (NUREG-0050), available for $5 from NTIS, 5285 Port Royal Rd., Springfield, Va. (A slow government agency, but the summary and recommendations are in NRC News Releases, vol.2, no.9, 3-2-76, available at better libraries) Time, Newsweek, Business Week and the NY Times have not retracted their previous concoctions. (BW didn't concoct much; it cribbed from Newsweek.)

One of the Special Review Group's recommendations that have already gone into effect is that all electrical insulation must be fireproof. Among the plants that are having miles of cables refitted to meet this new safety standard is Colorado's Fort St. Vrain High Temperature Gas Reactor (AtE Mar.74), and this is the main reason why it has not yet gone on line. An HTGR not only produces less waste heat than the average US coal-fired plant, but being gas-cooled, the probability of a meltdown is even tinier than that for Light Water Reactors. That must be why it is zealously opposed by Coloradans For Safe Power, whose love for safe power is like a rapist's love for women.

"During the first years of operation, nuclear power plants may consume more energy than they generate," says News from the Envir. Council of NYC. The statement is even more absurd than the usual charge, also false, that nuclear power is a net loser in energy accounting (AtE Mar.76); what makes it interesting is that the chairman of this Council is a well known expert on accounting and budget balancing: Mayor Abraham Beame of New York.

Just to show it isn't biased, the Febr. issue of Mechanical Engineering, monthly of the Am. Soc. of Mech. Engrs., gave 5 pages to Ralph Nader for an article on nuclear power. Nader leaves no superstition unrepealed; in a short postscript, the ASME Comm. on Nuclear Power coolly points out 18 of his blunders (noting that there are more), and adds "In summary, Mr. Nader's article does not have the objectivity or technical accuracy usually required by this magazine."

Californians: CfJ&E has changed its name to NO on 15 Committee - Californians Against the Nuclear Shutdown. Contact them at 6353 Wilshire Blvd., LA 94105 (213-653-6020) or 55 New Montgomery St., SF 94105 (415-495-7737); if possible, offer your help.